The art of bullying. . .

Was da Vinci's Mona Lisa Muse A Man? - Eleanor Ide - Ottawa Citizen - Feb 03-2011
My first reaction is : Who cares! In an all boy boarding school we put on plays by Shakespeare and Mollière. Some of us got the roles of men, others of women. Today, tut-tutters would find some form of salaciousness in that. But then, isn't this a rather revealing symbol of our era - our inability to recognize and respect anything different whilst professing to be warm-heartedly "tolerant"? Even so-called experts play the game. Even they belittle their  professional status by bringing down "the Greats" a notch - by spouting unprovable theories in the world’s press and sparring amongst themselves like school-yard brats. But in reality, redefining the undefinable and revising a historic event to satisfy our own in-need-of-titillation curiosity is a bit sleazy. Somewhat like "scientific expert reality tv".
Not so long ago we had the "reasons why" Van Gogh cut off his ear. Now, we have the "secret" behind the Mona Lisa smile. . . God forbid we should maintain a modicum of life’s mysteries.  How can second-guessing "what was" (a few hundred years ago) be considered scientific fact without scientific fact? If anything, curiosity based revelations (about those we call “Masters”)  have more to do with  jealousy and envy than anything else. With one group of aging specialists claiming black and one clan of grave-diggers claiming white, why don't so called experts keep their fantasies to themselves until they can actually perform a scientifically provable experiment?
I guess the only way some of us can elevate ourselves to a level of "grandeur by illusion" is to debase others - cut them down to size, bring them to their knees by giggling and taunting and “revealing”. And how much more fun it is when we point the finger at those who can’t defend themselves. . . Such is the mark of bullies who hide behind the title expert and of the times which support such behaviour.

Hear ye! Finally some sanity.

Our society is so caught up in winning, we forget that most great men and women in history have, at one time or another, failed at something; often repeatedly, and discouragingly. But each failure is nothing more than a brick in the wall that forms the foundation of our success. We can't forget that.

~ Carlton Young

Zero tolerance: more a test of who in the adult realm is mature and who is not

Plastic pellet incident at Va. school ends in expulsion, assault charges - Kevin Sieff - Washington Post - Feb 01, 2011 

14 year old expelled for using a "pea-shooter" - something every boy in North America used in "the good ol' days" when boys were simply that - boys. Today they are criminals and expelled criminals at that. . .  But, hey! Zero tolerance keeps us safe doesn't it? We don't exactly know safe from whom. But then, who cares. We're safe. . . . . Right?   

Remember. . .  : The decision makers, in this situation, are those who have been mandated to offer our children a sane and healthy education. . .

Quotes from this article: 

• "School officials expelled him for possession and use of a weapon, and they called a deputy sheriff to the scene. . . "
•  he was charged with three counts of misdemeanor assault

• The federal Gun-Free Schools Act mandates that schools expel students who take weapons, including hand guns, explosive devices and projectile weapons, to school.

• "We have an obligation to protect the students in our building from others who pose a threat to the over-all safe learning environment," the principal of the school states.

• Civil liberty advocates state : "School officials have developed a very dangerous mind-set that allows virtually no freedom for students, while at the same time criminalizing childish behavior." 

• The boy in question will be cleared of the misdemeanor criminal charges if he participates in a year-long diversion program. . . . . . . 

And so today, adults who are responsible for our children's well being for at least 5 hours a day, every day. . .  consider expulsion a normal reaction to what only 20 years ago would have merited an after school punishment of writing 100 lines of "I will not use a pea-shooter to plonk Johnny's head ever again." Now, is that what is called evolution. . . or just too much taking in of polluted air?

8 year olds fight aging. . . corporations rake in the money

Retailer launches beauty line aimed at 8-year-olds - -Fashion Section - The Independent (London) - Jan 28, 2011

We tart up 3 year olds for so-called beauty pageants and paste up our 8 years olds with "anti-aging creams"??? Who needs computers to create virtual realities when even a small percentage of our populations considers this acceptable. And we do consider it acceptable because NO ONE is telling the corporations producing these products to STOP.  

Teaching moments. . .

When Kids Help Neighbours, They Learn The Value Of Money And Kindness - Alina Tugend - New Yor Times News Service - Feb 01, 2011
Teaching our children about neighbourliness is one of the things we seem to have forgotten to do or have become too afraid to try. . . And so we have fewer and fewer "neighbourhoods" and much less kindness. . .

How many actually measure up?

"The test of a good teacher is not how many questions he can ask his pupils that they will answer readily, but how many questions he inspires them to ask him which he finds it hard to answer." - Alice Wellington Rollins - US author - (1847-97)

Censorship - the weapon of choice of those who would have us all submissive.

Teach A King To Speak, Then Take Away His Swear Words? -  Rush Says No Way - The Hollywood Reporter - Feb 01, 2011.
God forbid that our children would discover that swear words exist. . .  To make the film "A King's Speech" acceptable to PG 13 audiences, this exceptional movie of extraordinary import will be cut. . .  i.e.: the swear words expurgated  so that sweet little ears (who's owners swear much more than we want to accept they do) will not turn red. Geoffrey Rush, the co-star, states that by cutting this scene from the film the movie will be negatively affected. This reminds me of the self-righteous lot who are demanding that books such as Huckleberry Finn be "cleansed" (read : censored). I say more: This type of censorship is worthy of the worst undemocratic societies of this world. And yet, it reminds me of the repetitive and silly announcements made on tv every day and that we allow to fester in our minds - as if they are normal discourse. These announcements, there to "protect" the morals of we victim oriented people dictate the following :  "This program has scenes and language which may not be suitable for certain audiences. Viewer discretion is advised."  (More often than not, the tv programs so described are cooking shows or Love It Or List type programming. . . )